The great Australian opera singer, Dame Nellie Melba (1861-1931), becomes the first person to be heard on radio when she sings at the Marconi works in Chelmsford.

Oxford University opens its degrees to women.

The first international women's football game is held between Dick Kerr's Ladies (the famous Preston-based team) and a French team.

The USA gives votes to women.

Dame Agatha Christie (1890-1976) publishes her first detective novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

Unemployment benefit was extended to include allowances for wives.

The diplomat and traveller Gertrude Bell  (1868-1926) attends a conference in Egypt hosted by Winston Churchill and is invited to draw up the new boundaries for Iraq.

Ivy Williams is the first woman to be called to the bar, but she declines. Instead, the first woman barrister is Helena Normanton  (1883-1957) in 1922.

Victoria Drummond is first woman member of the Institute of Marine Engineers.

The Six Point Group is founded by Lady Rhondda (1883-1958), to push for women's equality on six points: political, occupational, moral, social, economic and legal.

The Football Association bans all women from playing on Football League grounds. more on women's football

The American novelist Edith Wharton (1861-1937) is the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Age of Innocence.

The first edition of Good Housekeeping, a new style of women's magazine, appears. Contributors to the first issue include Nancy Astor  and Helena Normanton.

The Law of Property Act enables both husband and wife to inherit property equally.

The Infanticide Act is passed. If the state of a woman's mind was found to be unbalanced, she can no longer be hanged for killing her child. 

Carrie Morrison becomes the first woman solicitor.

Aileen Cust becomes the first woman member of Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.

Irene Barclay is the first woman chartered surveyor.

The Women's Advertising Club of London is set up with Marion Lyon, advertising manager at Punch, as its first president.

Nancy Astor's first Private Members Bill restricts the sale of alcohol to young people under the age of 18.

On 2 May Women's Hour  (not to be confused with Woman's Hour), is first broadcast. The programme runs for less than two years.

The Matrimonial Causes Bill is passed. For the first time a wife is eligible to petition for divorce on account of her husband's adultery.

The entomologist, Lucy Evelyn Cheesman (1881-1969) becomes the first woman curator at London Zoo.

The Electrical Association for Women is founded by Dame Caroline Haslett (1895-1957), to encourage the use of electricity in the home.

The Guardianship of Infants Act gives parents equal claims over their children.

Josephine Baker  (1906-1975) makes her debut at the Revue Negre in the Champs Elysees in Paris.

The style guru, Coco Chanel (c.1883-1971) introduces her "little black dress". For the first time, hemlines are on the knee.

Queen Elizabeth II is born on 21 April.

Hilda Matheson  (1888-1940) is appointed as the BBC's first Director of Talks.

The Women's Cricket Association is formed.

Ethel Snowden becomes the first woman governor of the BBC.

Mercedes Gleitze becomes the first Englishwoman to swim the English Channel on 7 October.

Dorothy Buchanan becomes the first woman member of Institution of Civil Engineers and works on Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Lady Mary Bailey (1890-1960) is the first woman to fly solo across the Irish Sea.

The Equal Franchise Act is passed giving women equal voting rights with men.  All women aged over 21 can now vote in elections more on women's votes

The novelist Radclyffe Hall (1980-1943) publishes The Well of Loneliness, about a lesbian relationship. Within weeks, the book is declared obscene and is withdrawn from sale. Radclyffe Hall finds herself facing an obscenity trial.

Elisabeth Scott (1898-1972) is announced winner of the competition to design the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford.

Amelia Earhart (1898-1937) is the first woman to fly the Atlantic as a passenger and log keeper.

Dame Freya Stark  (1893 - 1993), traveller extraordinaire, embarks on the first of her travels, to the Lebanon.

The anthropologist Margaret Mead  (1901-1978) publishes the first of her best-selling books Coming of Age in Samoa.

On 30 May thousands of eager young women were allowed to vote for the first time. This General Election is sometimes referred to as the Flapper Election. 

A Week in Westminster is first broadcast on the BBC. It is the idea of Hilda Matheson, who wishes to inform the newly enfranchised women about the workings of parliament.

The Townswoman's Guild holds its first meeting, at Hayward 's Heath in Sussex.

Women become "persons" in their own right, by order of the Privy Council.

Mother Theresa (1910-1997) starts her life as a missionary with the Loreto Nuns in Calcutta.

Margaret Bondfield  (1873-1953) is appointed Minister of Labour, making her the first woman cabinet minister.

Maude Royden  (1876-1956) sets up the Society for the Ministry of Women.

Virginia Woolf  (1882-1941) publishes her most overtly feminist work A Room of One's Own.

The ceramicists Susie Cooper (1902-1995) establishes her own pottery in Tunstall, Staffordshire.

The speedway rider, Fay Taylour (1908-1983) represents Britain in the Australian Speedway Championships - and wins.